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Hi, I’m Monica Wilson and I’m here with my friend Beverly. She’s also a Pilates instructor and I’m excited to be able to lead her through an advanced mat workout today. I just did a bottoms up class and this is gonna kind of tag onto that so you might wanna check that one out as well. But Romana used to always give us this great feeling of empowerment. When she would teach us, we maybe came in and felt like, “Oh my gosh, I can’t do certain exercises.” But because she was with us and her energy, you just felt like, “Oh, I can give it my all.” So I’m hoping to give that to Beverly today and as well as you at home.
So let’s get started. Feeling full of energy, full of life. Let’s take the front of the mat and you’re gonna be able to do marvelous things today. Maybe step forward a little bit more. Good. So finding your Pilates stance, you’re gonna cross one arm over the other, already feeling the powerhouse draw in and up to the crown of your head. Feel the wrap in your thighs and the seat and cross one foot in front of the other.
Have your energy continuously going up as you lower yourself down. Keep pulling up in the belly, keep pulling up in the belly. Lower yourself down. Take the full length of the mat, stretch yourself out. Nice.
Reach your arms nice and long behind you, good and stretch. You wanna stretch as if someone’s pulling your arms long, long, long, good. And you wanna stretch as if someone’s pulling your ankle stretch. Nice. Good. All right, now I want you to bring your arms up and down into the mat and go ahead and bend your knees for a moment.
I will start with a few heel slides. So I’m gonna start with your left leg. All that means is on with your heel. Straighten your leg, sliding the heel out, just straighten the leg, don’t think about too much and then bend it back in, great. This time as you slide out your heel, I want you to engage the outer thigh and the seat so that all.
So go ahead and slide the heel out, engaging everything so that this really engages the wrap and all the muscles in your glutes. And go ahead and slide it back in. And last thing I want you to do, do that one more time. We are sliding it out. We’re gonna engage the outer thigh’s seat, but scoop in the opposite direction, up to the back of your ribs and then bend the knee in.
Let’s try it now with your right leg, okay? Because we’re gonna be lifting our legs from the 100 straight from the mat. So we’re gonna stretch out the right leg, extending nice and long, beautiful and bend. So we’re just sliding it out as you slide it out this time, a little rotation in the knee, engaging the right outer thigh and bottom, nice and bend. But of course, let’s not forget that powerhouse.
Bend the knee and we’re gonna slide that leg out as the belly drops down, sliding the right leg out. This time we’re gonna keep it long. And let’s add the left. Sliding the left. It’s gonna meet it, it’s gonna be Pilates stance. Press your arms firmly into the mat and lift your head up.
Looking at that great powerhouse, keep sliding those heels away so much that they lift up to an eye level. Here we go. Lifting those legs up and pump. Inhale two, three, four, five. Exhale, keep scooping your belly into the back of your ribs.
In two, three, four, five. Lengthening with the wrap. Fantastic. Inhale, two, three, four, five. Exhale, two, three, four, forty. In two, three, four, five, exhale, Zip up the back of those inner thighs in two, three, four, five.
Exhale, two, three, four, five. Really great job keeping yourself centered. Beautiful. Big breath, two, three, four, five. Always scooping into the back of the ribs. Gimme two more breaths in with the air.
And exhale, two, three, four, five. One more time. And we’re gonna go into the roll up as you exhale, two, three, four, lower the legs long, lower the head, lift the arms up and back. And we’re gonna lift the arms up to the ceiling, head through and exhale forward, forward. Lifting into a C-curve and going back, lifting up off your body.
Send those heels that way like you’re doing a heel side and stretch back in with the air arms head exhaling all the way out, forward lifting, kind of like into a horseback position. And then rolling back, sending, sliding your feet. You can even flex your feet if you’d like to keep feeling that. And four more in with the air arms head. Let’s keep it nice and continuous.
Stretch forward. You use the breath to roll down, inhaling, exhaling all the way, stretching back and in with the air to start and exhaling all the way lifting into that C-curve horseback good. And rolling back, sending your bottom forward slide those heels away. Nice work, two more times. In with the air and emptying the lungs.
Pushing down as you lift up into your C-curve. And rolling back, lower back. But really pay attention to that bottom. And lifting the arms up and back. But now we’re gonna bring the arms up and press them down as the legs lift right on over.
And we’re gonna touch the toes to the floor. Here we go. Over you go, touch the floor toes. Good. Push back with the toes. Slide the toes apart, push back. And now roll down.
Using your abdominals to keep those flexed feet, legs as close to your thighs as you can. Circle the legs low. Squeeze together and over to the floor. Straight down. Next time, yeah. Push down, slide ’em apart. Push back. Rolling down.
Feel those hips pushing your heels away. So I wanna see that heel slide right here. And last time squeezed together. And over. Push those toes straight down into the mat. Into the floor. Good. And slide apart and push back and rolling down.
But keep the feet flexed on the way down. And now we’re gonna do the reverse. So you click open flexed feet straight down to the mat. Yeah. Slide push and then slide together and push again.
And rolling down. Now your feet can be relaxed actually on this one. There we go. And rolling down. Sweep. Open it up. Yes.
Touch the floor straight to it. Yes. Little different than jackknife. And rolling down. We’re gonna stretch upper back. Middle back. We have one more. How low can your legs go? Open around flex.
Straight over, beautiful circle and push and squeeze together. And push and rolling down. It’s kind of like chest expansion. Lengthen those arms. Roll down the upper back. Middle back. We’re gonna keep the right leg. Stretch it to you.
Hands on that leg and lower the left down. Think about that heel slide. Attach the back of the leg to the mat. Get that scoop that you just did. And press your arms down by your side.
Five circles crossing, left shoulder around up, working that hip. Cross around up and cross around up. Keep working that left leg stabilizing in the mat. One more up around. Lift and reverse, reach outta that hip all the way down to that ankle.
Can you touch that ankle? That’s a beautiful tattoo you have there. Can we reach and touch that tattoo? Yes. And two, reach all the way to it. Love it. One more.
It lengthens the weight so beautifully down around. Last one. Yes. And switch legs. Yes. Stretch that one. Give it a little pull with your hands.
Yes. The right leg is woo attaching to the mat. Yeah. Little more down the middle of your body. Make sure that leg is down the middle and cross around up. Good, I don’t have a tattoo here so we’re not gonna get same image, but I want you to reach for that ankle.
Reach around and pull it up. Keeping the left waist on the mat. That’s the tough part. Remember you pull all the way up to your rib. Last one. Ooh, that’s better. Reversing it.
And reach around and come over and kick me up here. And reach around a little more energy up here. Yeah. Reaching around. Crossing up. Good. Two around. Yes.
One more time. Tiny waist around. And scoop it up. Good. And lower that leg. And you’re gonna head up and roll up for rolling like a ball. So we’re gonna lift your bottom forward, balance with your hands on your ankles.
Good. And staying right here. I wanna see you challenge yourself. We wanna keep pulling our belly into our lower back, but we wanna also feel it lift. Lift all the way into here. And then without moving your pelvis, can you use your upper stomach to bring your upper body forward more, forward.
Forward without moving that pelvis. Good, every time you come up, try to balance with your stomach. Not just pulling in but constantly trying to stretch the upper body forward. Let’s do six. Rolling like ball. Inhale, roll back and exhale.
Balance. Now keep showing me that lifting up and forward. Yes. Those hips work together to roll back. Exhale. Rolling right up and scooping in and up. Beautiful. In with the air. She’s doing this a little too easy. Exhaling up.
Let’s challenge her. Let’s take your right hand cross to your right ankle across your thighs and the left hand to the wrist, a little tighter ball is a little harder. Okay and in with the air, lift that seat up and exhale, pull into yourself. She can still do it. Two more. In with the air. How about you?
Are you able to do that? Get tight, tight, tight. One more time, in with the air. Lifting those hips up. Exhale hold as you work and rest your feet down. Very nice. Beverly, go ahead and lift back. So good.
And you’re gonna bend your right knee into your chest, but stay there with your left. Good. I want you to practice that heel slide again. So you’re gonna slide it out and then when you can’t slide it out anymore, lift that leg up to 45 and then bend it in. Bend this knee in and this foot’s gonna go down.
It’s gonna engage the back of the leg and bottom and get that deep scoop as it comes up and bend. But it’s of course gonna look seamless. So it’s gonna go out, up and in. Yes. And down as long as you can. Up and in. Good.
Now hold. Lift your head up. Let’s get our head up. Get into position. Left hand on your knee. Good. And let’s start with that left foot going down and out.
And pull it in as you switch legs, right leg goes down and out and lifts. And again, seamless. Like you’re riding a bike, you’re riding it backwards. Yeah. The belly drops down and up. Good. And stretching away.
There we go. Take some mental connection, some coordination. Good. And scooping it in. Nice. One more right. And one more left. We actually start with that leg. One more right, to be honest.
And bend both knees in. Same with the double leg stretch. Reach ’em down and out as your arms reach back and lift the legs up. And then pull yourself together. Reach the legs down and out. Hold your arms here. Lift the legs up. Don’t move the arms.
Lift the aha. Now pull yourself together. Good. And reaching the legs down and out. And reach all the way up. Our legs keep going up until they float up and then bend. Good And reaching. Just up to there.
Yes. And up, one more. So you’re getting your body really long as it lifts. And good. Go ahead and give your head a break for a second. Sometimes this series can get a little tiring. You’re gonna use your belly to lift up again like you did.
Rolling like a ball. Nice. Right leg up, left leg forward. And I wanna see these legs fly. Here we go. And switch. And switch really to tempo. Here we go. Right left, right, left.
Good. Let ’em fly. You gotta get a little loose. Little reach. Yeah. Stretch across the room. Up to the ceiling. Yes. Changing the tempo’s really important.
Sometimes you wanna just not be so err and tight. You wanna stretch and switch. And one more set, right and left. And now hold up both legs, hands behind your head and lower. Reach those legs across the room all the way down.
And then pull ’em up. Good. And reach ’em down from the back of the thighs in the seat and pull ’em up. Engage your outer hips and reach with them. And it’s like you have a mermaid tail and you’re reaching across the room.
And pull it up. One more. Your belly pushes your head into your hands and up and crisscross. Bend the right knee and rotate your spine. Good. Two, three. And to the left. So we’re gonna keep our pelvis here.
One more set, but then we’re not, we’re gonna take up, up, up the traditional crisscross. Last one to the left. Good. Now it’s gonna get a little different. We’re gonna twist like normal.
Good. But then we’re gonna keep using this hip and control roll onto the side. Bend that right knee. You can, you can, woo look at that and roll back onto your back. Scooping in both knees, you’ve got it.
Go up to your left knee and then keep using the waist. Keep pulling that right hip over. Take it over. Take it over. Find your balance everyone. And pull back. Center.
Bend both knees in. One more on each side. Why not? Oh yeah, it’s like the twist on the wonder chair and pulling back in. Working the waist. Working everything scooping in.
Yes. Good job. Bring that hip over just a little more so you’re right on it. Nice and back down. Hug both knees in. Woo. Good job.
Go ahead and sit up for spine stretch forward. Yes. Arms up at shoulder height. Excellent. Take a big breath and exhale. Forward head.
Think about your spine. You wanna stack it up. Lower back fixes so many things. Middle back, upper back, neck and head. Some things are so simple and Pilates. Head first so that you stretch the head, the neck, the upper back, the middle.
You wanna also go down in a straight line and crazy. You wanna come up in a straight line. Stacking them up, working the body evenly. Balanced. Let’s do one more. Lifting up off your seat.
Rolling. One vertebra at a time. Beautiful. Keep lifting your weight up like you did in rolling like a ball. Wonderful. And now we’re going to get into open leg rocker. Lifting up your legs all the way from your bottom.
Remember we’re gonna lift up from here, right? Awesome. Great. Let’s go for it, in with the air. Exhale. Roll right back up. Don’t hang out back there. In with the air. Exhale right back up.
Nice. One more in with the air. Exhale right back up. Oh good. Squeeze your legs together again. She’s making that look too easy. So let’s challenge us. So can we do teaser rocking? Here we go.
Three. Rolling back. Nice and controlled. And exhale right back up. Seeing how much you can get on your, yes. Two more, in with the air. Find the back of the thighs and seat.
They kind of push into your hands. That helps. One more. Give yourself feedback, in with the air. Lifting the hips back of the thighs and seat pushing into those hands. Hold. Maybe we can have a little fun and do tree.
So let’s go ahead and keep the right leg and lower the left one down to the mat. Make sure it almost feels like a heel slide with that left leg. Good. Stretch up and over that right leg. Tree is something we do on short box on the reformer if you haven’t seen it before. And you’re gonna hinge back and walk down that right leg.
Yes. Keeping your Pilates box nice and even. And then come right back up. Continuing to slide. Very nice lifting up and forward. And two more. Love it. This leg wants to really reach up to the ceiling. Super important. The energy up, up, up.
Yeah. And then you can stretch forward over it. And one more. Your left leg is sliding away from your heels, pushing away as you go down to stabilize that hip and head. And coming up. Yes.
Woo. Nice. From that position, can you switch legs? Bringing up the left, challenging her. Yeah.
All right. Slide that right heel away. And enjoy a stretch and watch that left hip. Make sure it’s working evenly as you walk down. And come back up. Keep your hips even as you come up. That’s it. And stretch.
And again. Two more. Again, this leg wants to feel like it’s being held up to the ceiling. So effortlessly, so easy. The energy in your legs is super important to do this exercise and stretching forward. One more.
Lengthening that right heel away with the back of the thigh and seat. Nice work. In with the air. Yes. And exhale. Scooping it up, up, up. Beautiful.
Good. Bring the right leg up as well. And regain that teaser again. Beautiful. Find the back of the thighs and seat. Reach your hands for your toes and roll away from your legs. Good. We’re getting ready for (indistinct) group.
Press your arms down and lift the bottom all the way over. All the way over to me first. Haha. Yeah. And then I want this energy right here. Lifting.
Twist that right hip away as you go down, reach around the room all the way up and lift nice energy. Pelvis is up. And lift that. Stretch that left hip away as you roll down all the way around. And alley up. Oh that was so beautiful. And reach that right hip down.
So you kind of twist as you go down. Sweeping the floor all the way around up. Good work. And twist the left hip away as you roll down on the left side. Reach to the left all the way around and lift. And one more. Keep your energy up and to the right.
Don’t lose steam. Keep it going. Scoop it in and rise on up. Yes. And last one. Very nice work that waist. Trim little waist, summer’s coming up. Here we go. We’re gonna keep nice and scooped in it up.
Beautiful lift. That’s wonderful. And roll down the body likes that. Good. Now we get to enjoy. So go ahead and sit right on up. Good.
And I want you to pull in just a bit here and lift off the seat as you push those heels away. And let’s rotate to the right and exhale down, sawing off the toe. Good. And inhaling up and rotate to your left and exhaling down. She finally gave me something I could correct.
And inhaling up. We’re gonna keep your hip steady as you rotate so the left hip doesn’t go forward, it stays pulled back here. And now dive forward because these muscles, thank you, are pulling back. Okay. So feel that left waist and come on up and keep your hips even as you rotate.
And now it’s your right obliques that are holding you as you exhale forward. Nice. Nice. And inhaling up now try to find that without my hands holding your hips square as you rotate, better. And exhale reaching past wonderful and up and rotating to the left with your abdominals. Holding back the, thank you. Perfect.
And exhaling. Exhaling, exhaling. Fantastic. And come on up and relax your arms down. Squeezing the legs together, we’re gonna flip over for swan dive.
Let’s go. Flipping over onto your tummy. Your hands are gonna be just a little bit in front of your shoulders. A little out to the side. We’re gonna zip up those inner thighs, press those hips.
Swan dive is intimidating but not when it has energy. So we’re gonna lift our belly up to our chest as we lift our head. Good. Keep feeling like you’re lifting your pelvis up to your chest. And we’re gonna dive forward on the count of three, you’re gonna reach your arms forward and legs way up to the ceiling.
One, two. Yes. And legs up. Squeeze ’em together. Zip ’em up. Arms up, zip ’em up. Legs, zip.
One more legs and good. Good. That’s some good energy. Nice job Beverly. Stretching back here. Good. Many different positions to stretch here. Just don’t let your belly lie on your thighs.
Let’s go back out for single leg kick. Shooting right back out. Good. Pull your elbows in a little bit for me Beverly. So they’re a little more together and a little under you, a little more. That’s it.
Now lift your chest up high and your head forward. I wanna be able to see a whole movie here as if you’ve got a movie screen right there. Excellent. I love the position of her pelvis ’cause she’s not taking it in her lower back and I know she’s had to work hard for that so she’s really supporting herself. And we’re going to take the right leg and one, two, and left.
Okay, let’s relax here for a second. Lift up again like you were and lift both legs up. Let’s lift up both. Nope. Straight. Nice and straight. Lift both.
Aha. Keep one leg reaching long and the other one pulls to your seat. Yes. And switch. Yes. So the energy again of one leg reaching really long out and not resting on the mat is super important.
Reach one leg. Long one and now let ’em pass each other. Get a little more rhythm. One, two still. One, two. Beep beep, beep beep, beep beep, beep beep. And that’s enough. Right facial cheek on the mat.
Hands behind you. Good. Zip up those thighs and lift them up as high as you can. Straight. Yes. Three presses to your bottom. Bending one, two, three.
And now stretch up, up, up. Good. And switch cheeks. You’re lifting hamstrings and glutes. Pull ’em in three times. One, two, three.
You’re lengthening and you’re opening the chest. Your belly’s lifting to your chest. And switch cheeks and lift and kick. Two, three. And up, up, up if you can. And switch cheeks.
Do what Beverly’s doing which is pressing her hips down rather than scooting across the room. And press down two, three and lift. Very hard to do though. I’m gonna give her a little reward because she does that. Yeah.
And rest. Go ahead and round your back and sit on your heel. So on that double leg kick, if you find yourself sliding forward across the room, you’ll need to lift the legs more and press through the hips into the mat more to get more work out of the body. Okay, let’s flip over and do neck pull. Great. And hands behind your head. What do you think?
Okay. All right. So I actually want you to bend your knees for a moment, just lightly and pretend you’re sliding on both heels. Okay. Slide both heels away for me that you want that energy really going out that way so you can lift your head as you take your breath and keep pushing as you exhale all the way up. Beautiful.
Kiss your knees, lift up, stacking up the spine, all the energy is here. And then keep pushing those heels away as you go back with your waist. Keep pushing ’em away. Roll down the rest but don’t fall asleep down there. Come right back up.
Exhaling forward. Beautiful. Inhale lifting up tall and keep pushing towards me. Yeah, keep pushing towards me. And then roll the rest down. And again, right back up in with the air. Emptying your lungs to your knees. Inhale.
Stack up your spine, use your hips to push away. As you reach, reach, reach. Lowering down. And two more, in with the air exhaling forward. Lift off that bottom.
Use your bottom to push your legs and stabilize your lower body as you go back with that powerhouse. And roll down. I lost count but I’m making you do one more, roll right back up. Exhaling forward. Beautiful, in with the air. And I hope that bottom’s working ’cause it really has to work in jackknife, which is the next exercise.
Pushing, pushing. Good arms down by your side. Knees into your chest. Good. Extend the legs to a 90 degree angle. Zip up those inner thighs and come over to a 90 degree angle here. And then right on up.
Yes. And rolling down. I’d like to see just a little bit of difference in tempo of the over and the up. So let me see the difference between over and up. Okay, so you’re gonna go over to a 90 degree more and now quickly up and down.
I like that better. Good. And hips with control. And then up and rolling. Upper back, fill up the upper back. Fill up the middle. Fill up the lower.
One more. Over and up. Very nice. And now we’re gonna transition to a very hard exercise. Let’s place your hands underneath. Good. And keep lifting up.
We’re going to do scissors. Okay. So one leg, let’s keep the right leg, is gonna keep lifting up. And the left one’s gonna reach as low and long, longer. Longer, yep. Switch. No bending on this.
And reaching. Reaching. She’s just gonna do the splits in the middle of the air and coming up. All right. Splitting.
Good angle and splitting. Beautiful. And do your best at home. You just the work you know you’re feeling your muscles if you’re doing this. Back of the thigh and see. Yeah. One more.
Yes. Good. Are we even or one more? Okay. And go ahead and roll down your bottom. Roll down your bottom. Shake out your hands. I like to take a little break.
Bend the knees between the two because I also demand a lot from bicycle because Romana, even when she was 80 years old, would still touch the floor and demonstrate it and touch the floor. So you’ll get an idea what I’m talking about right here. Take the hips over, return the hands underneath. Good. And we’re gonna keep your right leg up and you’re gonna reach the left one all the way down bending.
Yes. And bend it into your chest. And take this one down. Trying to reach the floor. Excellent. One more with me. One more set. Yes.
This is like shoulder bridge but a lot harder and yes. One more set on your own. Reaching out the thigh. It’s a big stretch. It’s a lot of work. Evening out. I think you’re gonna be here even.
And both legs up. Transitioning into high bridge. So we’re gonna bring down those feet. Good, good. And I’m going to give you two pads. Might need a towel at home to wipe off if you’re sweaty.
I hope you’re sweaty. Put your hands by your ears. Yes. Okay. Right now it’s all about really engaging the hamstrings and glutes and lifting as if you’re light as a feather into this beautiful high bridge. Fantastic. We’re gonna do a little develop a drawing the right knee into your chest, extend the leg and lengthen it to go down.
Now return it and make sure you still feel this light hips. Yes. Bend the left knee in, extend the left leg. Lengthen all the way from the waist. Return it, gimme another lift up in those hips.
Awesome. Head to your chest. Chin to your chest. And roll the upper back. The middle back. That was fantastic. Great.
Good. Sometimes we don’t get a chance you can return your arms down by your side to do like a little bit of adult gymnastics stuff. And even if you can’t get into it, just trying to open up like that. It feels really nice. Even if you can’t do the leg extra thing, just keep working on it.
It’s really nice. Let’s get sit up and do spine twist. Pushing those legs away. Flex the feet. Sorry. There we go. Good.
Really lift up and I don’t wanna see those heels slide past each other. She’s gonna keep both feet on me. I’m sure as she twist to the right. Good. Try to touch me with the right hand. Nice and center and twist. Pushing both feet towards me.
Good. And center. Make sure you breathe. It’s a breathing exercise. Empty the lungs. Empty. Empty, empty. In with the air. Exhaling, twist, reach behind you too.
That arm. Yes in with the air. One more set. Exhale. Heel staying even not easy. Lot of work in those hips and center. One more time. Drawing the waist, twisting it like you’re ringing out a wet towel and center.
Wonderful. Relax your arms down. I’m gonna take these pads away and we’re gonna get ready for sidekicks. Go ahead and lie on your left side facing the camera. Wonderful. All right.
And you’re gonna line yourself up at the back edge of the mat. Actually I’m gonna have you flex your feet. Bring the top leg just in front of the bottom flexed foot. Slide the bottom one in. Now you’re ready for advanced leg kicks. Okay.
Drawing the belly in. I want you to reach your right hand behind your head. Thank you. Good. Keep those ribs stabilizing. Reach across and it’s gonna be a little double pulse.
One, two. And reach it back. Two. Good. One, two and back. Two. And forward and back. It’s very challenging to have that hand behind your head each time you’re gonna feel more and more of the work in your hips.
The work in your waist. I need this leg longer than the bottom one, really has to touch all the walls. Two and back. And one more and back. Good job Beverly. Both legs together.
This hand’s gonna go back and front down. And we’re gonna use the outer thigh to kick up to your ear. And then inner thigh to reach long down, good outer thigh. Work the hip as you come down. Nice. Outer thigh and reaching long up and reaching.
One more time up and reaching. And five little circles. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Reverse it, make it longer than your bottom leg. Three, two, one. Nice job. We’re gonna do (indistinct).
So you’re gonna have your leg straight. Kick it up to your nose, bring it up to your ear. Rotate in your hip and take it behind you as your waist works. Thank you. Legs together and forward.
Work that hip to bring it up to your ear. Take it behind you. Good, squeeze. Nice one more forward. Up behind you. Nice hold. That was three.
We’ll do the reverse. Reach it behind you. Pull your whole hip up to your ears. You rotate to your nose and down, two more. Really work that hip like you’re lifting it all the way up.
Yes. One more. Now maybe not, so as much as if it’s heavy, make it light instead of what I’m saying. There we go. Side pause say. Slide your toe up as your knee goes. Aiming for between your shoulder blades all the way back to your shoulder blades.
Extend the leg, flex the foot and pull a heavy weight down. Squeezing. Slide the toe up, bending good, knee to the shoulder blades. Extend and flex down. Scoop it in.
Keep those hips even knee as wide up open as you can all the way back. Feel the inner thighs and we’re gonna go right into the reverse, flexing it up, opening that hip as you bring the knee back. Inner thighs as you lengthen out. Flex and up and knee to the back. And then inner thighs as you. One more time.
Flex and up and knee. And squeeze those inner thighs all the way together. All the way together. Nice job. You ready for some hot potato? Good. We’re gonna do five counts and then 4, 3, 2.
And then four sets of four. I mean four sets of one. Here we go in the front. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, up. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, up. 1, 2, 3, 4, up.
1, 2, 3, 4, up. 1, 2, 3, up. 1, 2, 3, up. One, two, up. One, two, up.
Four counts of one up, one up. One up. One more up, up. I like it. Good energy. Nice. Roll onto your tummy.
Make a small pillow for your forehead that really makes your legs nice and light and adds a little fun. Let’s zip up those legs. Lift them up, support the back. And we’re gonna do 20 inner thigh beats. 1, 2, 3. Do you feel the hamstrings? Do you feel your bottom?
Can you squeeze those inner her thighs all the way together? Sometimes you can take a nap during those. Don’t do that. Work the bottom. Good. Lower the legs down. Good. Let’s roll over and let’s face the camera again.
So if you don’t mind swinging your whole body over so that your right elbow is here and we’re gonna reach the legs this way. You can do the same at home. Or you could have your back to us if you don’t wanna see us anymore. Go ahead and flex your feet again. Yes. And take that bottom foot and put it in front.
And then slide. I’m sorry. That was the top, bottom foot underneath. Good. So in other words, your feet are just one foot in front of your body. When you’re a beginner, you can have the legs quite a bit in front of you for easier stability.
This is a little harder. So let’s add to that and put your other hand behind your head as if you’re doing neck pull. So we’re trying to put one hand over the other. And let’s get the ribs to feel that too. You’re gonna pull back in the ribs and push the head into your hands, great.
Lift the left leg up just at hip level. Reach it long, longer than your bottom leg. And double kick forward. Here we go. Double kick and back. Good and forward.
Let’s try to hold our stability as you go back. Reach up behind us. Yes. And forward. Trying to keep this elbow right up to the ceiling. Good. And for, that’s nice.
You got a lot more work outta the back of the thigh and hip now and forward. So try to keep this as if it’s being held up to the ceiling. And four, little more energy. Reach across the room. Reach and two.
And reaching long. And one more. This is your left hip. Reach and legs together. Great. Place the hand back in front of you. Keep this long as you kick up to your ear and squeeze inner thighs down.
Keep it long as you kick up and squeeze the inner thigh. Three without my hand there. Yes. Now you feel free. You can kick it as high as you want. And one more. And squeeze. Zip up those inner thighs.
Hold those inner thighs. Feel the stability in your body. Oh, we’re gonna stay down there. Stay five little circles. 1, 2, 3, 4. A little more quick and reversing it a little more. Boom. Three.
That’s it. Nice. Okay. Feel the difference in your muscles with the different tempos. All right, we’re gonna do (indistinct). Now kicking it forward to your nose, pulling it up to your ear and extending it into a beautiful arabesque as you rotate in the hip.
Leg forward. Up. Really work the arabesque. Pull this hip forward as you go. It’s behind you. Take the top hip forward. Good. One more. Make sure you’re doing that at home as well.
Rotate that top hip forward, forward, forward. Yes. That’s the work, reverse. Keep it forward. And now pull it up to your ear. Use your belly to pull it all the way up to your nose. Good. Two more.
Remember we’re lifting our leg up all the way from our bottom up to our nose. I didn’t see it go up to your nose and rolling up and hold it here. Pull it up to your nose up. Thank you. Legs together. Good. Side passe.
Bending the knee. Sliding up. You’re trying to open up that hip as you bring the knee back to the shoulder blades extend and flex down. Two more. I’m keeping that hip stacked. So make sure you do at home as well.
Flexing down. You’re trying to really open up the hip. Scooping in last one in this direction. Right into the reverse. Up, knee into the shoulder blades. Squeeze those inner thighs together. I’m gonna take my leg away. You keep it now.
Yeah. It’s a little challenging. Zipping it up one more time. Make sure those legs bend the knee. Get all the way together before. So heels all the way together. All the way.
That’s it. Nice job. Ready for some hot potato now. So five in the front, five in the back. And then 4, 4, 3, 3, 3. Two. Two.
Four sets of one. Let’s start with a light foot, left heel in front. And here we go. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, up. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, up.
1, 2, 3, 4, up. 1, 2, 3, 4, up. 1, 2, 3, up. 1, 2, 3, up. One, two, up.
There you go. One, two up. And here we go. One up. Come on. One up. Energy. One up. One up. And enough.
Good job. Swing your legs this way for me and go ahead and lie down on your back. Beautiful. Good. Hug the knees into your chest.
So we’re doing a lot of things. And go ahead and shake out your legs. So you’re gonna lift the legs up and you’re just gonna shake ’em. Shake ’em, shake those muscles right off those bones. There you go.
And hug in the knees. So we’re doing a lot of work with the hips, with the seat. So we’re gonna continue that with the fourth teaser. We’ll do teaser one, two, and three, will be where you circle your arms one way and your legs are circling the other. Do you remember that one?
Okay. It’s quite fun. Here we go. We’re gonna extend the legs forward at a 45 degree angle. Lift the arms up and back. Good. This is your starting position.
Your back might lift a little bit. Try to hold the abdominals. Really work the back thighs and seat as you roll up to reach for your toes. Keep finding the back of the thigh as you lift your arms from your waist. And try to keep your arms up by your ears as you roll away from your legs.
Rolling away. There we go. Right on up. Reaching for those legs. Nice work. Lift the arms from your waist and rolling away from those legs. So we’re trying to keep the legs from moving.
So one more all the way up. Keeping the legs right there. Pull back in the waist more. A lot more. A lot more. And now legs go down. Teaser two and up. And they don’t need to touch the floor, but they do have to have some energy, one more.
Up. Hold. And arms lift and everything down. Reaching. There we go. And everything folds up like a flower. It’s like a tulip. Closing at night.
And now it’s day. And open up. Rolling and stretching away. Good. One more. See if you can lift your head and feet at the same time. Feet. Feet, good.
Arms up and unfold like that flower reaching. Reach your energy in both directions. Come up one more time for that other teaser. So you’re gonna come on up. Good.
And I’ll be your focal point. And you’re gonna circle your arms this way as your legs go the opposite way and reverse. Nice. One more each way. I’m very impressed right now. And yes.
And hold and lengthen down. Fantastic. Woo. Those are not easy. Hug your knees into your chest. Very, very nice job. Good. All right, we’re gonna do boomerang.
Wanna do it? Let’s go ahead and sit on up. You are gonna cross straight legs, right ankle over your left. You were correct. Thank you. Place your hands by your side and a lot of energy lifts up. Lot of energy.
We’re gonna try to use your powerhouse to levitate those legs. Let ’em lift up and then all the way over. A nice sharp, open, close. Rolling up into your teaser, reaching light as a feather. Those legs stay up as your hands go behind you.
Lift them up and lower your self down to your legs. Reaching around. She does that quite well. One more time and we’ll take it a little further. And using your power has to lift those legs up and over.
Open. Close, nice and sharp. And control. Rolling back up into a teaser. Good. This is the hard part. Hands here, you’re gonna keep trying to dive your head to your legs as a lightly float down big circle because she can do that control lowering the legs, I’m gonna make it a little harder if you’re still working on that at home, keep doing that. That’s a really great strengthener.
But we’re gonna add an extra arm circle. We’re gonna roll back. Open close. Roll on up into your teaser. Good. Keep your legs up as your arms reach behind.
Keep your legs up as you big swan leg back to your toes and dive down with control. Good. Put your hands by your hips. Lift up and over. Open close. Rolling up into your teaser.
Good. Hands behind. Good. And keep those legs up. Reaching for me. Keep reaching for the upper body. Upper body.
Upper. Very good. That was a little more control. I liked that. Good job. Okay, now we’re gonna turn around and do swimming. Flip on over. Good, okay, so we’re gonna press, let’s press your right arm into the mat and your left hip.
But lift the right leg and the left arm. Yes. I want you to feel this at home so that you really feel the nice stabilization and control. Let’s put the left arm down and the right leg down and switch. So now the left shoulder girdle muscles and the right hip are really stabilizing you.
Now switch one more time, but get ready to lift now all the limbs up off the mat, reaching in long directions. And let’s go for a swim. Inhale. 2, 3, 4, 5. Exhale. 2, 3, 4, 5. In with the ear, two from those hips.
Keep using ’em like you did. I just gave you a taste of stability. Make sure you’re feeling that and relax. Round your back and sit on your heels. How did that prep feel?
Good. All right. Hope it felt good at home as well. Let’s go into leg pull down. You’re gonna keep your feet there.
Flex ’em under and lift into a plank position. I want your hands forward just another inch. They should be directly under your shoulders, stable hips like you did in swimming. And take the right leg up and rock back in that left. Use the left hip and return the right down.
Just one push back. Right stays down, left up. Push back and home. Just home and down and right up left down. Rock back once.
Pull forward. Return the right foot down. Thank you. Pull that right hip under you. Thank you. Rock back and forward, hold. Put the foot down. One more set.
Pull. Get the hamstring glute. I don’t see it. The left hip’s not firing yet. There we go. Rock back forward one more time. With the right this has. Yes. She turned it on. Left leg lifts.
Good. Rocks back. Forward and down with the leg. Now right hand to left. And a nice star as you turn all the way around. Beautiful. And keep going now. And keep the hips really lifted high.
They’re light is a feather. We’re gonna alternate right up. Flex down, left up. Flex down. Now lift that from the bottom this time. Better. from the bottom. Yes.
One more time. From all the way up. And last one. And let’s tuck the left knee under and face the camera. Good. Good. All right. I want your right foot down for a moment.
Just straight down. Perfect. Well I would like, that’s good. So we have that hand there. And I want this foot a little more forward.
And draw this in so that the ribs, make sure your ribs feel like they’re not going forward and that you, this shoulder girdle strength can push your head into your hands. Do you feel that right there now? Slide your right leg as long as you can on the mat until it lifts straight forward. It’s really behind you. This is straight. Yeah.
Okay. Kicking three times forward and back. Forward and back, higher. There’s a fire under that leg. Now hold the leg straight out from your body. Three circles. 1, 2, 3. Reverse it.
You might have thought, oh, she didn’t do bicycle earlier. She’s so nice. No, I’m doing bicycle now. Kick forward, bend the knee, take it back and extend. And leg straight out. Reverse and back. Toe to head. Knee to chest extend.
And keep your bottom in front as you kneel up tall. Keep. Yeah, you go. Go to the other side. That’s a really hard transition. Everyone wants to sit back. Keep your foot down again so that we really feel that pushing your head into your hand.
Sliding that leg out. Lift up. Good. There’s a fire right here. Kick it forward for three. Nice job. Two.
That right hip right now is really working to push forward. And now hold straight three circles. 1, 2, 3. Reverse. It’s almost harder with the stable leg. And now bicycle. Kick it forward for one.
Bending the knee, taking it back and extend. Leg straight out reverse. One back toe to head. Knee to chest. And extend and knees together. Ah. We get a little bit of a break.
We’re gonna sit down on your left cheek and hold it there for a moment. ‘Cause you wanna try to get your knees right as close together as you can. The ankles as close together as you can. And you want to have your hips sitting as level as you can. Little hard. Okay.
We’re gonna take our left arm and skim our body all the way up to the ceiling. Good. Sit back on your tailbone just a little bit with your ribs. Thank you. And reaching up and over. Ah, good.
Go ahead and let that arm wrap around your head. Nice. Extend that arm. Good. And reaching the energy up. You’re gonna take that left hand out and slide all the way out as your right arm reaches overhead too. Yep.
And we’re gonna sit right on up. Yes. So what you’re working on is that hip. Let’s go ahead and switch hands. Good. And reaching up and over. Good.
Hip staying level. This is such good work for Beverly and lifting. And so you can… Why don’t you demonstrate halfway so they can see what that is at home. So she’s just gonna go out to her elbow and then I want this to really work as she comes back up.
That’s it. And switch the arms. Good. And reaching up and over. So you’re trying not to hike that hip when you come back and lifting up and over. One more.
Either halfway or full. Your choice Beverly. And reaching up and over. Good. And then I’m gonna stabilize her and up. Yes. Keep reaching it down. That’s it.
Did you feel how you sat on it? Nice job. Teaser for transition to the other side please. Thank you. Yes. Good.
All right. So again, your knees are pretty stacked, your ankles are, and you’re trying to have level hips holding onto your left ankle as your right arm extends up to the ceiling. Super lifting up and over. Good. Exhale.
Enjoy wrapping that arm around your head. Good. And lift it long and up. Up to the ceiling with your waist as you switch arms reaching out, you can go halfway or all the way. But we’re gonna work this hip to come up.
Yes. And up. Hmm. That’s your left hip. And reaching over. It’s behaving as if it’s stronger than your other hip. And reaching long and up, up, up and sliding out.
I’m gonna keep an eye on that. It’s giving me a lot of good work, good feedback to know how to work with Beverly. And up, up, up. Pretty good. And reaching that arm up. Good. And over.
Over. Over. And scooping in and lifting. We’re gonna do one more time. Going all the way up. Come all the way up. And one more time to go. All the way out.
Out. Out. And we’re gonna use these abdominals right here. And up we go. Keep pushing this hip down to sit on it. Thank you.
Good job. All right. Another teaser transition. And I think I’m gonna get you some pads for snake and twist. Okay. So you can put your pads.
This might be a good time for you to grab your towel or whatever you need to wipe your hands. Or if you have pads like this at home, good just to get, hopefully you’re nice and sweaty again. All right. So for snake, we’re gonna have the right ankle in front of the left. Good.
And the legs are a little tighter than the twist. So we’re going to inhale up. Good. And exhale. Squeezing down as you open your lungs, open your chest, inhaling up, scooping up, and twisting the hips to sit down. Returning home. Great.
I wanna see basically the pull up when you come up. Think about the pull up on the wondered chair in with the air coming up. So we’ve got this great lift, like a balloon is lifting her up to the ceiling and then exhale as she pulls the mat behind her and opens up her spine. And then inhale, head to your chest. Rolling back up into that.
Nice pull up and twist at the hips to come home. Great. Let’s do two twists. So pulling… Let’s get the right arm on the thigh. Yes. You wanna have it like that or just down?
How’d you learn it? Okay, there we go. (chuckles) That’s what I was say. Okay. And we’re gonna have your feet more stacked. One on top of the other. Okay. And we’re gonna come up into a big bridge.
So lift the hips and hold. So the biggest thing here is your hips right now are actually two inches behind you. Get your pubic bone forward more. Get your hips forward more. That’s the stability. And now we’re gonna take your right arm under the bridge, wring out your lungs.
Good. And now we’re gonna take that left hip and squeeze it under you. Press it under you as forward as you can with that left hip. Now open the chest up to the ceiling, letting your right arm open a little and come back towards the camera and bend at the hips. Fantastic.
Good. One more, up into a beautiful rainbow. Yes. So we’re gonna lift that hip up. Go under the bridge, wringing out the lungs. Good.
Come back up. Bringing that left hip right forward and opening the chest as you twist backwards. Good. And looking forward and breaking up the hips. Fantastic.
So what I want you to concentrate on at home is really trying to feel the hips press forward and under you. The temptation is to be just a little behind. Let’s go ahead and switch sides. Bring your pads with you. And we’re going to just switch. Normally I’d make you do the teaser, but since we’re moving the pads, we’re just gonna do that.
Is that all right? Okay. All right. Straighten your legs just a teeny bit more. There we are. So the left foot is in front this time and it’s all about that right hip. Here we go.
We’re gonna lift up into an imaginary pull up on the one to chair. So instead of pushing down your energy, your energy’s lifting up. And now exhale forward as you open the chest, zipping up those thighs, opening up and back up and lifting up all the energy into here. And bend at the waist and twist the hips back under. Good. One more.
Alley up. Use the earth to lift instead of take your energy and exhale forward, forward, forward. Opening up the chest. Beautiful. And lifting up. Fill up all these bones. Scooping in. That’s it.
And untwist or twist, I should say back forward. Good. Now two twists. Here we go. The left foot’s still in front. They can also be stacked either way, but it’s about squaring off those hips. Forward with the camera. Yeah.
Okay. We’re gonna come up into that beautiful rainbow working the right hip. Good. Can you see it? Did we get that rainbow effect? Beautiful. Now we’re gonna twist under our bridge.
Beautiful. And now we’re gonna keep taking, rotating that right hip forward from the right outer thigh and seat and holding the hips here. Can you open the chest as you take that left arm back a little and then reaching forward again and bend at the waist. Nice. One more Beverly, in with the air lifting into that bridge.
Emptying your lungs as you twist under the bridge. Under. There we go. And looking forward, keep lengthening this leg. Yep. Keep pulling that hip under, good. Scooping in. And open the chest as you go.
Yeah. And look forward and bend at the waist. Take it down. Nice. Very good. Swing your legs back this way.
Good. And I want you to do some balance control or control balance. So we’re gonna lie down. Here we go. This is a really nice one, a very hard one. I’m gonna direct it as if you are just learning it for the first time at home, you might be well versed.
Take your head and shoulders. Or you may have never seen this before. So I want you to take your feet directly to the floor and push the ball of your foot into the floor. Can we do that? Take your hips over. Fold in half feet directly down.
Good. Now easily take your arms overhead and grab either the ball of the foot or your ankle, either one. But you wanna feel the feedback of the floor. Okay, with your hips are your hips square? Do you feel the back of the thighs and seat?
You also are gonna wanna feel not hips collapsing into your ribs, but lifting. Now we’re gonna take this hip a little bit this way and we’re going to take the left leg up to the ceiling. Right up. Lifting. Lifting.
I’m not really doing anything, but I wanna give you the idea of this energy. Return the foot down. All the way down. Keeping that hip. Yes.
That’s it. Good. And return the foot all the way down please. Find the energy and grab on. And now I am going to step away, so don’t depend on me. Or fall over to the window.
Don’t fall over. Don’t fall over. Yes. Return that left foot down all the way please. And then take the right up. Oh, that’s very nice and even. Good.
And now I will allow you to switch as you want. She’s like, I can do this. Act beautiful. ‘Cause your energy’s up here and switch. Lovely. Do one more set like that. Are you getting the hang of it at home?
And one more. This is one I have to work on at home. Both legs up. Bring your arms back down, circle ’em around, and roll right into seal. Good. Coming a little forward. Six seals, knees a little narrower.
Let’s get ’em within the mat. And here we go in with the air, you’re gonna roll back and exhaling forward. Good. And in with the air. Have a little more energy. A little more tempo. Two, three.
Rolling forward. Clap. Two, three. Massage your back as you go back. Exhaling. I like the back of the neck and head to be comfortable on the mat.
There you go. So don’t hold it up off the mat when you go back, let it go down. Yes. And back two more, in with the air. Since we sat down from a standing position, we’re gonna stand up after this one.
So let go of the ankles, cross ’em and come all the way up with your arms lifted up with your energy. I like it. Uncross your feet. Good. And come on over here. Join me over here. Turn just facing good.
And I want you to exhale and reach your arms up to the ceiling, turning your palms out. Inhale, press down a heavy weight as your whole body weight lifts up. Lifts up. Lifts up. Give a little loosey goosey.
And you’re all done for the day. Nice job. Very good. Thank you. Yeah.
